Hello everyone! This is HellD1amond and I’m back with another interview. Today I’m going head to head with the EQL admin himself Hooraytio. A Team DeathMatch player by heart. We are going to talk about the EQL history, future and his opinion on HoH (Hymn of Hope) project.

Please introduce yourself to our readers before we get down to the nitty gritty.Hello, my name is Gustaf. I‘m 30 years old and have been playing qw since 1998. Have only really played 4on4 since I like the teamplay aspect and the fact that weapons must respawn.

Tell us more about your gaming career.Well it all started back in 1998 when some guys in school started organizing small LANs where we would play QW and starcraft. We formed a clan and went online and of course we got badly beaten all the time. Kept on playing on 56k modem until 2001 when I got ADSL. I then joined Campbusters for the Smackdown qualifiers. It didnt go too well and I left cb to start up our old clan from the lan again. It was called Splatt and we played together for a year. Then NQR2 started and i joined Gamblers. To make a long story short i played in various clans in all of the NQR seasons until EQL came around and I joined Chosen. This was in 2005 and ive been playing there ever since. Chosen has played in NQR8-11 and EQL1-15 and Ive been part of the team in all of those except NQR8. I never played 1on1 or 2on2 in any competitions since I'm not too good individually.

Amazing with all this history When was the first EQL launched and who was the founder?EQL was founded by Zanne, he felt that the QW scene needed something fresh. So he launched a new league in the fall of 2005 with the help of a few other admins. His idea was to run a league based on divisions where clans would advance through a system based on performance from season 1 and forward. Sadly the system didnt work as intended, since so much happened with the clans and players between the seasons. So they ended up making new divisions every time, instead of just promoting and demoting the teams that ended first and last in each division.

How many teams were signed back than?Back then it was around 50 teams signed but I think there were somewhere around 70 teams existing, not everyone signed up for EQL1.

Wow quite big number If I will compare to EQL #15 which is running now. Do you think EQL tourney improved by the years?Well the original idea was good but it never really worked. It worked in terms of getting the clans to face equal opponents but it also lead to dividing the qw scene in sub-scenes and eventually the clans were afraid to play versus a clan from a higher division because they would lose and "waste time". Furthermore it wasnt changed until EQL15 despite this original inherent error. When this season is over we will be able to see if it improved or not. Well one improvement was that playoffs were introduced in all divisions eventually instead of the qualification games that noone cared about anyway.

And are you planning to do some changes in future?We are planning to introduce more maps, again, if we can get a good custom map tourney running and extract 2 good maps from it. Despite having played cmt1b, cmt3 and cmt4 much in previous seasons they never really caught on since almost no clans played them in pracs. Yes, there are reasons as to why no one plays them, like not knowing what maps there are for next EQL thus only practicing TB3 makes sense. Muffin has made some great maps and we are planning on trying them in the custom map tournament. Other changes might be the league system, if the current system doesn't work out so well.

Is there anything planned for rookies or newcomers? Or perhaps other initiatives to bring more teams into 4on4 QuakeWorld scene?If there are enough rookie clans, like 4 atleast, we have tried to make rookie divisions in the past. The problem has been that rookies often get tired and only 1 or 2 teams are really active, often getting better than the others and winning quite easily. I stated in the news when we opened EQL15 signups that we would do it again but we didnt have any real rookie clans signing up. I think its hard to get the message out there to the real rookies who arent really into, and familiar with, the quakeworld scene. I hope, however, that the draft league, Salvation, can expand in the future and include all players from div0 to rookies, perhaps using several divisions in some way, since I think it can be a good way into our scene.

HoH is a surprising new project introducing money prizes for online QW tournaments. What are your thoughts on this initiative?I think its great with some fresh ideas on how to attract, mostly old, players to the game. The drawback is that noobs dont think they have a chance at winning the money anyway and dont signup. Also, it was suggested that money is perhaps better spent at other stuff like coding pages, mods, advertisements and paying for domains and web space. But if it works out I would love to see some money in 4on4 as well since thats my main focus. I would love to help out the HoH crew if they ever get around to 4on4.

Thanks for your time Hooraytio, time to wrap this up, any final shoutouts?I would just like to thank everyone who signed up for EQL15. The turnout was at least 10 more clans than I expected since the 4on4 scene felt really dead in January. Now, get your games played!

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Thanks to Hooraytio and the previous interviewees. There will be more interviews coming in the future, so if you have an idea how I can improve, or who I should interview send me email on jan.drly@hotmail.cz.

After this season ends and the system is evaluated one must also remember that the current clans are formed after the old segregated division system making the impact of the new system hit even harder. Hopefully clans will adapt and we will see a broader variety of skill in each clan.

What, HellD1amond_CZ? Not sure what you meant, but I greatly appreciate the interviews, and this one in particular was very good! Good answers Hooraytio, and good questions, HellD1amond_CZ! Keep them coming because I believe more people than myself are interested in hearing what people think about basically everything =)

Yea, a interview should not just be some random question, it should be individual for each person. much more intresting to read. Not that ur interviews have been boring at all, but i think i know what paradoks meant.